The present disclosure relates to implantable electronic devices and systems.
Implantable electronic devices and systems, such as neurostimulators, create an electrical stimulus that is transferred to the nerves and tissues of a patient's body in order to treat a variety of biological disorders. For example, pacemakers can be used to treat cardiac arrhythmia, defibrillators can be used to treat cardiac fibrillation, cochlear stimulators can be used to treat deafness, retinal stimulators can be used to treat blindness, muscle stimulators can be used to treat paralysis in limbs, spinal cord stimulators can be used to treat chronic pain, cortical and deep brain stimulators can be used to treat motor and psychological disorders, and other neural stimulators can be used to treat disorders such as urinary urge incontinence, sleep apnea, and sexual dysfunction.
As there are a number of different applications, there are similarly varying types of implantable electronic devices and systems. For example, a spinal cord stimulator can be used to treat chronic pain, while a microstimulator can be used to treat disorders such as urinary urge incontinence, sleep apnea, or sexual dysfunction. As such, the features of the implantable electronic device, such as, for example, the size, shape, orientation, and functional components of the device, can vary with the nature of the application for which it is used. It is generally desirably that the aforementioned features are configured to render the device as compact as possible so as to consume a small amount of space when implanted in the body.